MISALIGNED MERIDIANS

Needlework
The trip to the acupuncturist/chiropractor was fascinating. She started out by checking my range of motion in my arms and my neck & back (they're fine, said I)... during which she pretty much started laughing at me. Apparently, I really don't have good range of motion in my left arm (from the surgery) and she touched this spot on my neck ("does this hurt?") and practically dropped me to my knees in pain. Who knew.
Then she tested my meridians, which has to do with the 7 (8?) acupuncture pulses but involves electronics and sounds like a metal detector. My left and right energies are misaligned. "Are most people uneven?" I asked her. "No." she responded. (...dammit). She did some pressure point stuff then took me into a back room to do the actual acupuncture. Some in my feet, legs, hands, arms, and (get this) ears. Some of them stung more than others going in (depends on the energy at the point, she told me) but really not bad at all (less than a shot-- especially the "this will hurt" ones I've been getting lately). Then, right before she left she told me "the needles will hurt if you move." (whaaa?) ...after which my nose started to itch furiously. I lay there for about 20 minutes in the dark and quiet that was it. Much more pleasant than say, an MRI. I definitely felt better afterwards, but I'm unclear if that's due to the acupuncture treatment or the fact that I was one more day away from chemo treatment. We'll see for sure next week. But in any event it was very interesting and I can only describe what I felt at the whole process as amazement that people know this stuff and wonder at what else is yet to be discovered about how this whole mind-body-spirit thing all works. Complimentary medicine indeed. I'm glad I went.

In the News
Breast cancer has the huge advantage that it is researched so extensively that the infamous "they" have discovered that not all tumors are alike. For example, I have what's called a hormone-receptor negative tumor which means that post-chemo drugs like tamoxifin won't work for me (although they really help the 2/3s of women who have estrogen receptor-positive tumors). ER negative folks typically have more aggressive tumors and it was also thought that they (we) have a worse prognosis. However, you may have heard the good news on NPR this past week:

Chemo Succeeds Against Hard-To-Treat Cancer
Study Focuses on Tumors Not Fueled by Estrogen
CHICAGO (April 11) - Research offers hopeful news to women whose breast cancers are typically more difficult to treat: Modern chemotherapy means more of them will survive than previously thought

Basically, exactly the chemo treatment I'm getting (dose dense) has been shown to reduce the risk of recurrence as much as 50%. Rock on. That makes it a little more palatable to feel ick.

Dodging Bullets
When I was in Navy ROTC one of my summer training stints involved a week in the Marines. (I know, it seemed surreal to me as well). The hardest day involved climbing up ropes with full gear on (during which I made it about 2/3rds of the way up and then fell flat on my back), storming a mock town, and low crawling under barbed wired while gunnery sergeants screamed at us ("Stay down maggots!") and shot (hopefully well over) our heads. I remember thinking after I fell into bed exhausted and bruised from the 22 hour day that if I had known ahead of time what I was in for I didn't think I would've been able to get out of bed that morning. Hmmm. (Good thing I have a 3-year old anti-snooze alarm).

Happy thought alert #4: 10:15 MST.